Brian Schweitzer called up to offer a "mea culpa" for encouraging his supporters to respond to on-line polls listed below. But he said that he didn't ask anyone to leave comments, and that a third of the comments favoring him were from people he didn't know. He also noted that a fair number of comments critical of him were among the responses - and that few other candidates have received comments of any kind.

These polls are notoriously unscientific, of course, but at least all of the people who left comments appear to be genuine voters, even if it is impossible to tell how representative they are of the electorate as a whole.

On a separate issue, Mr. Schweitzer indicated that he's in no hurry to pick a lieutenant governor candidate for his ticket and could even wait until well after the state convention to make a choice. He offered no hint of who his choice might be. When he floated the name of conservative Outpost political columnist Brad Molnar as a possible candidate, I think he was just kidding.